Yet another reason to drop turkey this Christmas

While the majority of the turkeys are said to have survived the crash, we do not know what injuries they suffered, and they endured being trapped in a hot lorry before they were taken to slaughter in another vehicle.

These turkeys join millions of other ‘unofficial’ victims of the farming industry. Whilst official statistics show that around a billion animals are slaughtered for meat every year in the UK, we estimate that another 43 million die before they can be slaughtered, from causes such as road crashes, fires, floods, disease and neglect.

Even when they are not subjected to such ordeals, farmed turkeys typically endure short, miserable lives and all meet a brutal and terrifying end at the slaughterhouse. Commercially reared turkeys are often kept in cramped, filthy conditions, and many have the tip of their beaks sliced off to stop the stressed birds pecking one another. You can view footage from our latest undercover investigation inside an intensive turkey farm:

There are several things you can do to help turkeys, and other farmed animals this Christmas: